Silly little film, but very funny

Un Crime au Paradis tells the story of a fairly dimwitted farmer Jojo, and
his nasty and ruthless wife Lulu, who live in complete animosity together on
a farm, very ironically named "le Paradis", or "Paradise". They spend their
days essentially irritating the other as much as possible, and reciprocating
for the misery they've injected into each other's lives. This all comes to a
head when Jojo sees on TV a lawyer who is famous for getting
crime-of-passion killers acquitted since, as he says "Anyone can kill out of
passion or anger".

The process by which Jojo plans the murder of his wife with the un-knowing
help of this lawyer in order to get away with it is where this film gets its
humour. It really is genuinely funny watching the passionate and devious
lawyer get all worked up getting the story of Lulu's murder straight with
Jojo, without even realising that the murder hasn't yet been committed.
André Dussollier and Jacques Villeret do marvellous work in these two roles,
and they back up the over-the-top script with similarly comical
performances.

The film is obviously lacking in realism, but the script and the actors
never take themselves too seriously; the countless jokes about the
unattractiveness of Lulu is testament to this. And while the film is
entertaining for the most part, it lags a bit towards the end, suffering
from its lack of ingenuity in the basic storyline. It's fairly well executed
in order to provide humour, but it's really nothing more than simple French
escapism, and the story and pace of the film are nothing to get overly
excited about.

That said, I could well recommend this film. Despite the drab setting and
similarly drab budget, I'd say this is a very accessible film to a fairly
wide audience, and definitely worth a look for a quick laugh. ***1/2 /
*****

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

C'est la vie !

It's a french film, located in the french countryside, with that unique
french feeling that stays right between drama and humor: one hour and a
half
that run like fresh water. Not a chef-d'oeuvre, but really pleasant. One
thing to appreciate is that characters are as natural as it is in everyday
life, and the plot seems to come out of a province's newspaper as well. 7
out of 10.

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Like a stick in the eye

I liked this film, which doesn't take itself as seriously as many
contemporary French films do. It may never reach the USA - too bad. The
humor is reminiscent of Bill Forsyth, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam et al
with a setting in dreary but beautiful French countryside instead of
Scotland. A year after seeing it, many little comic details flash
back...the
coroner accidentally swilling the mole-killer ("taupicide") laced glass of
wine by accident...the vicious wife ambling across the street threatening
motorists with her umbrella...the shrewish pharmacist being convinced to
sell the poison...the nasty tempered goat farmer muttering "la salope!"
under his breath as milk runs out the bottom of his punctured bucket...the
farmer and schoolteacher walking around oblivious to the April Fool's fish
taped to their backs...

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:

Humorous and better than I had anticipated

This film was a pleasant surprise from present day French Cinema which
seems
incapable of making good comedy films such as it made in the sixties and
seventies. Apart from one or two exceptions one has to rely on Hollywood to
produce films to make us laugh. Anyway this film is quite unusual. The
title
means quite simply a crime comitted at a farm called "Le Paradis" in a
remote region of France near to Lyon during the late seventies. The film
was
inspired by another film from the forties called "Le Poison" by famous
director Sacha Guitry. Whereas that film sought to satirize the French
Legal
System of the time, Un Crime au Paradis is more of a black farce. A husband
is more than henpecked by his wife, he is "mashed up", i.e. she hates him
more than
you can imagine and will do anything to get at him. All this happens in a
peasant environment where people do not divorce and just put up with it
however they can. Each one wants the death of the other, and eventually the
husband after seeing a lawyer who wins all his cases on TV goes to see the
lawyer claiming to have killed his wife and to see what his chances are of
getting away with it. On the other hand the wife has gone to purchase some
mole-killer to do away with her husband
and she fantasises on the massages dealt out to her by a doctor. Anyway one
of them is killed and the film is about the ensuing trial. The actors
Jacques VILLERET, Josiane BALASKO, ANdré Dussolier are all good and well
known actors from today and give splendid performances. We also se comedian
Roland MAGDANE with a small part as a café owner and
Valérie MAIRESSE as his wife. Lastly we have dear Suzanne FLON as the
retired schoolmistress with hear beautiful mellow voice who gives kindly
advice to the husband. The best performer is Balasko as the nagging
wife..........she is just AWFUL !!!!! You just want to take her by the
throat
and strangle her !!! I am not sure whether the film is known outside
France, but if it is shown elsewhere it is sure to have success, not
because
it is a great work of art but because it is above all entertaining and
shows
life in "La France Profonde" (Deepest
France ). It has probably been under-estimated by the French
Public
and may have more success outside France than inside. The humour is
slightly
black but should appeal to Anglo-saxon audiences more than to Latin ones.
Anyway get to see it if you can. You certainly won't be bored
!

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5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

An old-fashioned French comedy

If you want to have a look at life in the French countryside in the
seventies, this movie is for you. It's a good illustration of this
forgotten world during which everything looked so naive and pain. The film
is a remake of a French movie classic. It looks anachronistic compared to
sophisticated French movies such as "Le pacte des loups". Its subject, its
cast (most of the actors comes back from the seventies and the
eighties...),
its music by Pierre Bachelet, its direction... Everything looks out of
time.
It may be pleasant, but at the same time a useless effort to revive a
movie
genre which belongs to the past and which was so well made at the time.
Funny, but useless.

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A valid film in its own right

If you know Sacha Guitry's immortal "Le Poison", this movie may seem a
little disconcerting to you. It is a fairly faithful retelling of
Guitry's astonishingly cynical story, but with many of the sharp
corners rounded. Not a betrayal of the original, but a different,
typically Jean Becker, way of telling the same story. The wife is far
more developed as a character, and we are given reasons to feel sorry
for her on occasion. Josiane Balasko, who plays the part, is also a
first-rate actress. Braconnier, played by the equally gifted actor
Jacques Villeret, is not as aggressive as Michel Simon's character; he
borders on the timid. Humanity as Jean Becker sees it, in other words,
and not how Sacha Guitry saw it.

If you don't know Guitry's film, you can enjoy this for what it is, a
funny and yet warm comedy. If you do know Guitry's film, the écart
between the two will bring out nicely what was typical of/unique to
Guitry.

A strong recommendation for both movies.

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0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

While it's not exactly a comedy, it's a charming little film.

In 1951, Sacha Guitry wrote and directed "La Poison" (oddly, he didn't
star in the film). I have never seen the film but noticed that Amazon
is selling the Blu-Ray version--which I'll have to buy. Why? Because I
enjoyed the remake, "A Crime in Paradise", so much--I'd really like to
be able to compare it to the original.

As for "A Crime in Paradise", this film isn't exactly a comedy--though
it has a dark, slightly comic tone. In many ways it's reminiscent of
the wonderful Charles Laughton film, "The Suspect", as both films are
about very nice men who have wives who are Satan!! In both cases, the
viewer is in the odd position of WANTING to see her killed--and in a
cute twist, so did the entire village in this film!! As I said,
however, it isn't exactly a comedy--more a sweet little character study
that worked GREAT because of the fine performance by Jacques Villeret.
Because of this and the wonderful story, I highly recommend it and feel
that the current relatively low rating isn't to be trusted.

By the way, as a non-Frenchman, I was shocked that apparently in order
to buy poison you go to a pharmacy! And, you need to sign for it to
make sure they keep track of the mole killer. I think the latter is a
very good idea but selling deadly poisons at a pharmacy?! Odd.